Geoffrey Boycott may have been a boyhood hero of Steve Denison but the chairman does not want him on the Yorkshire board.
Photograph: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Geoff Boycott’s hopes of joining the board at Yorkshire have found little favour with the club chairman, Steve Denison.

Boycott, a former Yorkshire captain and more recently president, has reportedly accrued sufficient nominations to be put forward as a prospective board member at the club’s annual general meeting over Easter.

Denison has made it clear in a BBC interview he does not believe the former England opener’s presence at committee level will be in Yorkshire’s best interests.

Speaking on the day the club announced an annual profit for the first time in seven years, Denison cited the need for “stability”.

Yorkshire, county champions for the past two seasons, are planning a multimillion pound redevelopment of the Football Ground stand to try to guarantee Test match status beyond the agreement with the England and Wales Cricket Board, in place until 2019.

Denison told BBC Radio Leeds: “We want individuals with skills that can guarantee the survival of the club.”

Members will be urged to look beyond Boycott when it is recommended at the end of this month that three new board members are elected.

“We are saying no on the back of stability,” the chairman said. “The success we have had in the last two seasons has been on the back of a very stable board and a very stable management team, all pointing in the same direction.”

Yorkshire retain significant existing debts, despite the annual profit of £368,000 and an increased income of £8.4m, and Test-match status is crucial to their well-being.

Denison has fond memories of Boycott in his playing days, when he became a hero for many, but will not allow that to affect his judgment. “He’s a boyhood hero of mine – I invaded the pitch aged 13 when he got his 100th hundred at Headingley.

“But the problem we face at the moment is the club has been in serious financial difficulty for a long time, propped up by [the former chairman] Colin Graves.

“We need specialist skills on our board in relation to finance and construction, and that’s the direction of the board over the next few years.”